


A Kindness Offered

by MellytheHun



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hugs, M/M, Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 12:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8713933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellytheHun/pseuds/MellytheHun
Summary: Kylo decides to do something out of the ordinary for his ill-at-ease General.





	

The doors to Kylo’s private quarters slide open and while he could sense the buzzing presence of strict anxiety long before it was within earshot, he’s still surprised to see Hux standing there. He's really always surprised to see Hux - it might be how shocking his electric blue eyes are or the honey and amber of his hair. He's a striking figure, always.

“General…”

Nodding in way of greeting, Hux shuts the doors behind him and welcomes himself inside. The General fancies himself “king” of his ship; he feels entitled to Kylo’s space, but he’s cagey too. Paranoid. Kylo can’t tell why yet and he's curious enough about it to wait the General out.

All that’s known to him is that Hux had a very important conference that took up the later half of his work cycle and he apparently didn’t even eat afterward. Kylo only noticed his absence as Hux is the only person aboard with bright red hair and a compulsive need for synchronized scheduling; for him to miss a meal is strange and it did not go unnoticed.

Kylo is mostly undressed and had been meditating for the last few hours after dinner, but he could feel a ripple of unease and turmoil as Hux approached and it’s since broken his focus. He looks up from the floor as Hux takes a seat on his bed; Hux is dressed down and his hair is still a little damp from a recent shower.

Kylo has never seen him so informal. It’s a little charming, really.

“You look much smaller out of uniform.”

Hux glares at him, stands up and goes to leave.

Without moving an inch, Kylo’s eyes narrow at Hux’s back and wrapping a Force-hold around Hux like a tight lasso, he freezes Hux where he stands.

“What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. Let me go.”

Uninvited, Kylo flips through Hux’s turbulent mind like a thick text until he finds the most throbbing, irritated anxiety.

“So your father will be boarding with us soon,” Kylo notes coolly, “Why are you so fearful of him?”

Flashes of violence, bloodshed, shouting, drills and isolation disproportionate to an underfed redheaded child’s age or emotional state play before the eye in Kylo’s mind.

This fear is deep-rooted, not entirely irrational but unnecessary.

“You are much stronger than him now," Kylo assures him.

“He outranks me, it doesn’t matter.”

Kylo tilts his head curiously.

“You can’t sleep. You didn’t come here for me to unnaturally sedate you - you would sooner go to the med bay for that. What were you hoping to gain from my company?”

“I don’t know.”

“I can’t make you less fearful of your father. That’s not how the Force works.”

“I _know_ ,” Hux bites, “Just let me go - this was _clearly_ a mistake.”

Standing up, Kylo leans back to crack his spine and he ties back his hair to keep it out of his face. He only loosens his Force-hold on Hux once he’s standing in front of the man, blocking his way out.

“Three standard years we’ve known each other and you have never asked me for anything,” Kylo says, searching Hux’s guarded eyes, “Tell me. What did you hope to accomplish in coming here?”

“I don’t…” Hux trails off, his brow once furrowed in anger loosening into something more sorrowful, “I don’t know. I thought…”

Kylo watches how Hux’s hands furl and unfurl; everything surrounding his aura is electric with lightning-bright anxiety and a rumbling, thunderous stress still mounting.

“…you thought I would understand.”

Hux looks away, but his hands stop curling in and out. He starts cracking his knuckles instead.

Kylo takes Hux’s hands in his, drawing Hux’s shocked and mildly offended attention back to him.

Staring down at the thin, pale skin of Hux’s hands, Kylo can’t help but find them handsome. His nails are pinkish, all identically cut and clean, there’s a scar over the ring finger of his right hand; when Kylo reads over it, he can sense a memory of someone righting a broken bone improperly. There are some pale freckles on the turns of his lithe wrists and his veins are thin, blue and only just visible.

Kylo looks up into Hux’s eyes, still calm from his hours of meditation and feeling capable of aiding Hux. He can’t explain entirely why he wants to, but he thinks he can.

“I do understand.”

Hux glares down at his own hands; he wants to say something spiteful and inflamed, but he is brimming with self-loathing and he simply can't bring himself to.

Without any warning, Kylo does something he has never done as an adult; he releases Hux’s hands, slides his own hands down Hux’s relaxed forearms and wraps his arms around Hux, pulling him in tightly. He keeps one arm tucked around Hux’s waist and the other he crosses over Hux’s back to cradle his head, keep it close to the crook of his neck.

He tilts his head against Hux’s temple and rubs his thumb back and forth over the short, fine hairs at the base of Hux’s skull.

“You’re safe, Hux,” Kylo promises, “You aren’t small as you once were and you are a formidable foe. I know you won’t ask it of me, so I’m going to invite you to stay.”

“Stay?”

“Sleep here,” Kylo offers, looking over Hux’s fiery, mussed hair to his bed that will certainly have room enough for the both of them, “I will see to it that you sleep through the cycle.”

“I’m _not_ some -”

“I am attempting kindness, Hux,” Kylo admits, shutting his eyes against the wave of uncertainty and shame at the confession, “Accept my offer. Nothing can harm you. Not anymore. And certainly not while I am present.”

To say Kylo is shocked by the relief that falls over Hux’s aura like cool rain is an understatement. Hux pulls away, but intentionally stays within the loop of Kylo’s arms, to Kylo's surprise. He looks Kylo in the eyes and says with some degree of reverence, “it’s been a long time since someone has offered me kindness.”

_Or protection, I take it._

“That as well.”

“Then it’s my honor to be among the few with the opportunity to do so.”

He likes the way rosy heat fills up Hux’s cheeks. The General is really rather handsome and Kylo envies him for it as much as he enjoys being audience to it.

“Fair warning, I burn like a furnace at night,” Kylo teases.

Hux smirks back at him and replies, “then it’s only fair to warn you that my feet turn to icicles and I will be deliberately putting them on you to warm them.”

Kylo can’t help it; he laughs and _that_ , somehow - _bizarrely_ \- more than anything else he’s said or done, calms, comforts and eases Hux’s troubled mind.


End file.
